Jamie Garriott has been working with the Farm Service Agency for 11 years and has been the Kosciusko County executive director of the agency for the last seven. She enjoys working with local producers, making them aware of the various federal programs that are available to them.

WARSAW — Jamie Garriott, director of the Kosciusko County Farm Service Agency, admitted she kind of fell into the work of the Farm Service Agency. A family friend knew about a FSA training opportunity and thought Garriott would be perfect.
Garriott attended Ball State University where she earned a degree in marketing and fashion merchandising. “It’s different ends of the spectrum, “ she said about her education and her career, although she did grow up on a farm.

“It was a way to help people, the people make it (the job) more interesting,” she said. As she learned more about what the farm service agency did she realized just how in-depth the job was. One thing that did surprise her was the amount of change that occurred in the programs offered by the Farm Service Agency. “It’s always changing,” she said. “Changes in existing programs and adding new ones. They are (the government) is always throwing new stuff at you … There’s a lot of reading.”

Garriott has been a farm service agent for 11 years and has been the county’s executive director for the last seven years. The Farm Service Agency administers government programs through the farm bill. The agency does market and assistance loans, offers crop insurance for crops such as fruit, vegetables and hay, as well as oversee programs where producers come in and sign a contract with the agency each year. The agency even oversees a conservation reserve program.

“A big challenge we have is people think we’re attached to the courthouse and we’re not. We’re not associated with the county courthouse at all. We’re federal,” she explained. The Farm Service Agency office is located at 217 E. Bell Drive, across the street from Biomet.

“We call ourselves the face of government,” Garriott explained. “People see us. You don’t see an IRS agent or anyone else.”
One part of the job Garriott doesn’t like is having to tell a producer they were denied a benefit or owe money back due to a violation. Kosciusko County Farm Service Agency works with 1,600 farms with about 200 producers who come into the office on a regular basis.

When Garriott started working in Kosciusko County she didn’t expect to see crops such as mint, green beans and potatoes. “I have a lot of guys getting into sunflowers,” she said, noting one producer planted the flowers for sunflower oil while another for birdseed.

“My goal is to learn something new everyday. Those speciality crops, you learn something new,” she said.
Garriott lives just south of the county line. She grew up in Huntington. She started her career in the Farm Service Agency in Morgan County and then shared duties in Monroe, Morgan, Putnam and Hendricks counties. She came north after becoming engaged. She’s married with two stepdaughters who enjoy playing soccer, softball and basketball.

In her spare time, Garriott enjoys trail riding on horseback and traveling.